Lonely Road
by cuz-CM's-awesome
Summary: Penelope's headed to meet the team when she runs into a little trouble, who will come to her rescue?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: In no way do I own Criminal Minds, no matter how much I wish I did, and I'm not making any profit off this story. **

**Summary: Penelope's headed to meet the team when she runs into a little trouble, who will come to her rescue? **

**This was written for the Mix and Match Challenge on CCoAC. My chosen characters were Penelope and Aaron and my prompts were: thunderstorm, broken down car, purple piece of clothing, lightening. **

**Please R&R**

**Enjoy! **

…

_Clank…sputter clunk…rattle…rattle BANG! _

Penelope's orange Cadillac lunged forward one last time before dying noisily on her. Rain was splattering against her windshield and she could just make out her smoking engine.

"No, no, no, no!" Penelope cried "This can't be happening to me!"

Penelope couldn't have broken down in a worse place.

She was on her way to Rossi's cabin for the weekend. The rest of the team, minus Hotch since he was spending the weekend with his son, had already left as they had gone straight from the airport after getting back from a case. They had offered to wait for her but Penelope had been at the office when they called and had some work to finish before she could leave. She hadn't known when she was going to be done and she knew the others were tired from the case; she didn't want to make them wait around for her.

Though, at the moment, she wished they had.

She was on a practically deserted, country road. She had gotten off the main highway forty five minutes earlier and so far she had only seen five or six cars.

She had hoped to be at Rossi's by now but the driving conditions were horrible. It had started pouring while she was still on the highway and she was now having trouble seeing a foot in front of her. The idea of the cottage had seemed so appealing to her before she left, what better way to relieve some stress than spend a relaxing weekend with good friends? But now she wondered how she could have been so stupid. Heading out on the road at 10:00 pm after a long, tiresome day without someone there to keep you company, as well as awake, and that was without including the bad weather.

Penelope heaved a heavy sigh and reached for her purse which was sitting on the passenger's side. She dug through it and pulled out her cell phone.

When she looked up she got a shock.

Light was streaming into her car from the back window, peering up at the rearview mirror Penelope saw that a car had pulled up behind her. The head lights were blinding and Penelope couldn't make out much about the car…or its driver.

All at once images of nameless women's faces that had been abducted from their cars after breaking down raced through her mind.

She gripped her cell phone tightly and her fingers fumbled to press the **on** button. She had turned it off before she left work once she realized she had been running low on battery, to save what power it had left.

Apparently just another bad decision she had made that day.

She was frantic as she made sure her doors were locked, her heart pounding in her chest. "Come on, come on…" she whispered looking down at her phone.

Suddenly lightning lit the sky. Penelope looked up, and screamed. A man, illuminated by the lightning stood outside her window, seeming to have appeared from nowhere, he loomed over the low-to-the-ground car.

Her scream was shrill and piercing. If it hadn't been for the storm, anyone around would have come running.

Her scream died on her lips when the man got closer to her window and she could hear him say, although slightly muffled, "Garcia, it's only me…"

She finally allowed herself to get a good look at him.

Penelope took in the dripping wet form of Aaron Hotchner, his suit wrinkled from the rain and hair plastered to his forehead.

Penelope placed her hand over her heart as the relief sank in.

She stared at him blankly for a moment and then her brain began to reboot. She realized that not only was he standing there in the pouring rain, but he was also standing on the side of the road. If any cars did end up driving by, he could easily be hit.

Snapping back into the role of mother hen, Penelope unlocked her door and hastily opened it before sliding across the bench seat. "Get in here quickly, before you catch a cold or worse" she ordered, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Aaron slid into the car without protest.

"I can't believe it's you," Penelope blurted once he had closed the door behind him.

Aaron looked over at her.

"Don't get me wrong," Penelope added "I'm uber glad it was you…rather than the alternative."

Aaron chuckled and Penelope scowled at him "It's not funny; you scared the bejesus out of me!"

"Sorry," Aaron said sobering "you're right and given our jobs I understand completely."

Penelope shook her head "It's alright; I guess I was quite a sight huh?"

Aaron sent her a small smile "Your face was priceless when you looked up and saw me there, but I honestly didn't mean to scare you."

Penelope knew that, Aaron just wasn't the type to take pleasure out of scaring someone. Especially someone like Penelope, knowing how easily she was frightened, he was too honorable to do that do her purposefully.

Penelope smiled back at him so he would know she wasn't mad.

"What are you doing here anyways Sir? I thought you were spending the weekend with Jack?" Penelope asked, only then realizing that his appearance was not only unbelievable but also improbable.

Aaron sighed "That was the plan up until two hours ago. After I had said goodbye to the rest of the team, I had to come into the office to collect some paperwork I needed to bring home. I was finishing up when I got a call from Jack, apparently one of his friends invited him over to spend the night and go to a waterpark tomorrow. He seemed really excited about it and Jessica ensured me that the other boy's family are good, trustworthy, people."

"Well that's nice," Penelope said "It's too bad you missed out on your time with Jackers though."

Aaron shrugged "It would have been nice but I'm happy as long as he is. Besides I was planning on leaving the cabin tomorrow night so that I can at least spend Sunday with him."

"Does Rossi know that you're coming now?" Penelope asked.

Aaron nodded "I called him right after I talked to Jack. I just decided that rather than going home to my empty apartment, it would be nice to go and have a good time with you guys. Of course then, twenty minutes after I got on the road, it began to rain."

"Well I'm certainly glad you did" Penelope said.

Aaron laughed "Yes well, I was surprised to see your car on the side when I hadn't seen much but rain and farm country for almost an hour."

"I know right," Penelope said "it's so forlorn out here. I'm sure it would be a nicer drive during the day and with better weather but I've never seen a road so deserted before."

"So, speaking of driving, do you know what's wrong with your car?" Aaron asked.

Penelope sighed "I think this baby is finally on her way to the junkyard in the sky, I've been having trouble with the engine for months. In hindsight I shouldn't have driven her tonight, but I just had a service check three weeks ago so I thought things would be fine."

Aaron frowned "It looks like there's no easy fix if it's the engine, I thought maybe there'd be something I could do to get her going but with the rain and everything that's looking doubtful. We'll have to call Triple A…I think there was a motel a few miles back. We can stay there for tonight and then continue on to Rossi's in the morning."

"Oh Hotch don't let me stop you from…" Penelope was cut off by a large boom of thunder that caused her to jump in her seat.

Penelope's eyes widened as she looked out her windshield into the stormy night…she hated thunder.

"I…" Penelope began trying to remember what she had been saying but this time it was Aaron that cut her off.

"Garcia, I think it is best we head to the motel anyways. It's raining even harder now and it was hard enough seeing before."

Penelope was still distracted by the storm "Oh…I just…are you sure?" she asked.

"Positive," Aaron responded, taking out his phone.

…

**A/N: Just a quick note, I'm sure most of you already know this but for those who don't: the Third Annual Profiler's Choice Fanfic Awards for the Criminal Minds community has begun. Nominating Ballots are now available and all you Criminal Minds fans should go and check it out. There are so many great stories out there that deserve recognition. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Don't Own. **

**Please R&R **

**Enjoy! **

…

An hour later found them at Moe's Motel. It was a shabby little place that neither of them particularly had wanted to stay at once they had got inside but with the storm only getting worse, they didn't have much of a choice.

It was two floors with only thirty units available in total. Penelope and Aaron had paid for two rooms on the ground floor; it wasn't very busy so they were able to get them right next to each other.

As Penelope walked into her room, she said to Aaron who was standing behind her "I think I might have rather taken my chances in the car."

Aaron chuckled at that "It's not that bad."

"Uh huh…" Penelope said the sarcasm practically dripping from her words, she eyed the peeling, yellowish, water damaged wallpaper as she wrinkled her nose at the musky scent.

Aaron rubbed the back of his neck "I guess I've gotten too used to staying in crappy motels while on cases, to let it bother me."

Penelope turned to him "Well I guess the upside is that if anything does happen to me tonight, the walls are so thin that you'll be sure to hear my screams."

"If you scream as loud as you did when I surprised you, I'm sure the whole motel will hear you" Aaron replied.

Penelope tried to look annoyed but a smile tugged at her lips.

"I'm sure we'll both be fine," Aaron said "if you're okay, I'm going to head to my room; it's been a long day."

Penelope felt her spirits diminish, she didn't know if she could survive spending the whole night in this room, especially not without Aaron there joking with her to help forget about the situation.

But she didn't want to be more of a burden to her boss than she already had been, he would have probably already made it to Rossi's if he hadn't stopped to help her.

She nodded "Yeah, of course, have a good sleep."

He smiled at her and wished her a goodnight before leaving, closing the door behind him.

Penelope stared longingly at the door for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly "You can do this," she told herself aloud "Everything will be fine, just as Hotch said."

Penelope carried her bags to the bed; she had gotten them out of her car as soon as Triple A had arrived to take it.

She looked around the room, checking out the open door to the bathroom she decided to get out of her wet clothes, have a warm, quick shower and then head to bed.

She unzipped her suitcase and searched through the contents, trying not to pull out everything she had brought she finally found what she was looking for and pulled it out of her bag.

But before she could head to the bathroom she heard a low rumbling that slowly grew louder until she heard a loud boom of thunder that seemed to rattle the walls. Penelope whimpered and the towel fell from her hand.

She really hated thunder.

…

Later that evening, in the next room, Aaron lay on his back wide awake, staring up at the ceiling.

He had been tired when he first got into the bed but soon found himself unable to fall asleep which wasn't an unusual occurrence for him.

He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed.

He could still hear the storm raging outside and hoped that by morning it would blow over.

Aaron closed his eyes and focused on trying to sleep, he calmed his breathing and snuggled deeper into his pillow but it was no use. His eyes flew open five minutes later and he threw the covers off.

He thought maybe if he went outside and got a breath of fresh air, it would help. He knew it was still raining but the awning would cover him and he wanted to stretch his legs as well.

So he stood and walked to where he had placed his pants that he had been wearing earlier that night, over a chair.

He dug into the pockets looking for his key card and was surprised when his hand closed over two cards instead of one, and he realized then that he had the key card to Penelope's room too. He had opened the door for her when she hadn't been able to open it herself. Then he must have put the key card in his pocket out of habit.

Aaron pulled them both out and headed to the door. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt which he decided not to change out of. If walking around did make him sleepy, he wanted to be able to hop right back into the bed and get to sleep.

Aaron opened his door and stepped out of his room. He stretched his arms above his head, cracking his joints and then turned to the left walking down the hall. His eyes were focused ahead of him instead of beyond the awning and parking lot where the rain was coming down hard.

When he made it to the end of the row of rooms, he turned around and headed back. As he was approaching Penelope's room he frowned. He could see light shining under the space beneath her door.

It made Aaron wonder if she was still awake.

When he reached her door he stopped and contemplated whether he should knock. If she was sleeping then he didn't want to wake her up but still he couldn't figure out why she would have went to sleep with the light on.

Finally his gut told him to do it, just to make sure everything was alright. So he stepped forward and knocked. He waited a moment but there was no answer. So he knocked a little harder but still nothing.

That made him worried.

Penelope may not travel with them on every case but he knew from the ones that she had come on, that she was a light sleeper.

Aaron looked down at the key card in his hand; he had almost forgotten it was there. He knew using it would be an invasion of her privacy but he just wanted to make sure she was alright and he knew she would understand.

That decided he swiped the key card, waiting for the light to glow green and then pushed open the door.

He frowned at what he saw.

Penelope was sitting on the end of her bed, huddled with her arms wrapped around her knees that were brought to her chest, and she had her head tucked down against them.

"Garcia?" Aaron called out but she was unresponsive.

He shook his head; she was really starting to freak him out.

He made his way to the bed and sat down beside her, and he realized with concern that she was still in her rain soaked clothes.

Her arms were covered in goosebumps and she was shivering quite badly.

"Penelope," Aaron tried again, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The touch startled her out of whatever trance she had been in. She looked up at him and blinked "Hotch?" she whispered quietly, obviously confused.

"Penelope," he said "what's wrong?"

"I…I don't like thunder" Penelope answered.

Aaron wracked his brain, he couldn't remember ever seeing Penelope act this way just because of a bit of thunder, but then he realized as unbelievable as it was, in all the years he had known her, he had never been with her during a storm.

He mentally shook those thoughts from his head; he'd have time to contemplate them later, at the moment he needed to worry about Penelope.

"You're going to catch a cold if you stay in those wet clothes," Aaron said standing up but Penelope didn't move.

Aaron thought for a moment about what he should do. He had noticed when he walked into the room that it was rather chilly, at least compared to his room. He wasn't sure but he had a suspicion that the heating wasn't working.

Finally Aaron made a split decision and decided that it was in Penelope's best interest if she stayed in his room for the night. It was warmer in there and she needed all the warming up she could get. So he gently took her arm and helped her to her feet. Seeing her towel discarded on the floor he bent and picked it up and then guided her towards the door.

Once they were in his room he dug through his own bags and pulled out a long t-shirt of his. "Can you put this on?" Aaron asked and waited.

Penelope reached out towards him to take the shirt but her fingers were trembling so badly she could barely gasp it.

Aaron took a calming breath. He knew the situation he was in was totally inappropriate and he hoped that Penelope would forgive him in the morning, but he knew he had to get her out of her wet clothes and warmed up or the consequences could be devastating.

Penelope was acting like a victim in shock and even though he didn't know what it was about thunder storms considering he was the only there that could help, that's just what he was going to have to do.

So he helped divest her of her clothes, being a gentleman he did his best not to look and quickly got the t-shirt on her.

When it was on he found himself looking Penelope in the eye and even though she still didn't seem one hundred percent back to normal, he could still tell that she seemed embarrassed.

He looked away.

"Okay," he said "you need to get into bed."

Penelope nodded and went to take a step forward but was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder and all of the sudden Aaron found himself with Penelope in his arms as she let out a sob.

Aaron tensed for a second in surprise but found himself relaxing as his arms wrapped around Penelope and held her tightly.

He ran his hands up and down her back softly, whispering to her that everything was going to be okay. Apparently that's all that was needed to release the flood gates.

Penelope began crying in earnest, her head tucked under Aaron's chin. All the while he just continued to comfort her.

The thought of going to sleep in her room had crossed his mind but now he couldn't imagine leaving her. He would end up worrying about her all night.

Instead he carefully maneuvered them towards the bed. He tried lowering her down but she was unwilling to let go of him so he got in with her. He pulled the blanket and sheets up over them. Then he continued rubbing his hands up and down her arms to keep her warm.

"You're alright, you're safe, I'm right here" he whispered to her and soon they were both fast asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Don't Own. **

**Please R&R **

**Enjoy! **

…

Aaron's eyes blinked open as he woke up. He yawned and stretched before contemplating closing his eyes and going back to sleep.

He hadn't felt so relaxed in a long time. It was hard to believe that he had actually slept the night before. Sleep didn't come easy to him, he'd had a mild case of insomnia even before Jack was born and it had gotten progressively worse over the years.

He looked down as the reason for his great sleep chose that moment to stir.

Penelope lay draped over his chest, he could feel her ample breasts pressing softly against his side as her chest rose and fell with every calming breath. Her head rested on his chest, her hair tickling the underside of his chin and her arm lay across his midsection.

He had forgotten what it felt like to sleep with someone wrapped in his arms. It was nice and the fact that it was someone he really cared about made it even better.

Thoughts of Penelope and how much he truly cared for her flitted across his mind before but he had always pushed them away, reasoning with himself that it could never happen considering he was her superior, not to mention she would probably never feel the same way about him.

But after the night before…well Aaron didn't know how he could go back to pretending. Nothing really had happened between them but at one point during the night he had woken up when Penelope had moved in her sleep and then moaned out his name. At first he hadn't been sure if he had really heard it correctly but then it had sunk in and he had found himself grinning like an idiot. Penelope had snuggled against him and Aaron had fallen back asleep with a smile on his face.

Now Aaron didn't want to spend another night without her by his side.

Penelope's fingers flexed over his chest as she woke up.

Aaron held his breath as he watched her stretch, holding himself back from pulling her back to him.

As he was expecting Penelope stiffened once she was awake enough to realize that she wasn't in her own bed and she wasn't alone.

She hesitantly looked up and caught Aaron's eye.

"Oh my god…" spilled from her lips when the realization hit her.

She jumped up, away from him, and Aaron sighed sadly, from the moment she had woken up he had known it wasn't going to be easy.

"Penelope," he began trying to calm her down.

She was trying to pull herself free of the blankets and sheets wrapped around her.

Her frantic eyes met his again as she finally got loose "I'm so sorry Sir, god I can't believe…it will never happen again, I swear."

Aaron started to push himself up, he opened his mouth to try again but that's when she noticed her lack of clothes.

She gasped and pulled his shirt down, stretching it over her lower half. She just barely remembered him helping her to undress and her cheeks colored an angry red. She looked to the floor where her clothes were lying and saw her towel. Quickly she snatched it up and wrapped it around her waist. Then she gathered up the rest of her clothes and hurried to the door.

"Penelope," Aaron called after her, he was on his feet and following her to the door.

Penelope couldn't look at him "I'm sorry," she repeated "thanks for helping me last night but I just can't…I…sorry for being a bother" Penelope rushed out, opening the door.

"Wait," Aaron said and Penelope found herself unable to move, "here."

She slowly looked up at him to see that he was holding out the key card to her room. "You're going to need this to get back into your room," he explained.

Somehow Penelope felt even more embarrassed, as if that was even possible. She took the card from him while muttering a quiet thanks.

When she was gone Aaron ran his hand over his face in frustration. He hadn't wanted to let her walk out the door but knew he couldn't have forced her to stay. He knew she was upset and uncomfortable. The least he could do was allow her to change into something other than his t-shirt before starting up the conversation he needed to have with her.

Aaron was pulled from his thoughts when he heard his cell phone ringing, he turned and walked back to the bed, grabbing it off the night stand.

"Hello?" he asked harshly without checking the caller ID.

"Hello Sir," a woman said hesitantly on the other side "I'm Megan and I'm calling from Triple A, is this a bad time?"

Aaron sighed "No sorry," he replied. The night before they had given his cell number to the Triple A guys because Penelope's was out of battery and she had forgotten her charger at the office.

"Okay, well I was just calling to inform you that Ms. Garcia's car won't be ready to be picked up today. In fact the garage told me they would like your permission to bring the car back to the city, it needs to have its engine replaced and it would be cheaper to have it brought back to the city rather than having the engine shipped to them." She explained.

"That's fine," Aaron said right away, he had decided the night before that he didn't want to see Penelope drive away in her car anyways, worried that it wouldn't make it with only a touch up job, plus now he needed to talk to her and he knew that the first chance she got she would try to run away.

"Alright then Sir," Megan said "if there's any more updates will give you a call, if not we'll call when the car is ready to be picked up."

"Thank you," Aaron said and hung up. He sat down on the end of his bed and dug through his overnight bag to find something to wear. He wanted to be dressed and out of the motel room as soon as possible.

…

Half an hour later, after Aaron had made sure to grab his things from the motel room and had thrown his go bag into the trunk of his car, he made his way to Penelope's door.

He knocked gently but she didn't answer.

He sighed and called through the door "Penelope, I think it's best we get on the road now if we want to be at Dave's for a decent time."

There was shuffling behind the door before it opened a small crack "Uh you can go ahead without me Sir, I'll wait until my car is ready to go."

Aaron felt like rolling his eyes at how predictable she was but stopped himself. Penelope was already embarrassed, he didn't need to piss her off too, though he might not have choice considering what he was about to tell her.

"Actually Triple A already called me; they said your car needs more than just a fix up job and had to bring it into the city instead. I told them that was okay. I'm fine with driving to Dave's cabin and I'm sure someone else from the team will have no trouble driving you back."

Penelope gaped at him for a second; she opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut a moment later. The door opened fully and she grabbed her suitcase that was sitting on the floor beside her "Fine," she stated "let's go then."

Aaron nodded and led the way to his car.

Penelope put her suitcase in the back and then hopped into the front. She had considered getting in the back but she didn't want Aaron to think she was making a big deal out of what had happened, and she knew he would say something if she did. Not to mention that if any of the team saw them pull up with her in the backseat, they would have their own questions.

Aaron got into the driver's side and started up the car. They pulled out of the Motel parking lot and were back on the road in no time.

It was still raining though not as hard as the night before and Aaron turned his wipers on, then he looked over at Penelope.

She wasn't looking at him; instead she stared out the window, her body tense as she hoped beyond hope that Aaron wouldn't bring up what had happened.

Aaron turned back to the road and kept his eyes glued there for a while, he knew Penelope was uncomfortable and he didn't want to make her more so but he still needed to talk to her, he just wasn't sure how to bring it up.

Twenty minutes into their drive Aaron switched off the radio which had been playing on a station called golden oldies, and cleared his throat "Listen Penelope about last…"

"Let me stop you right there," Penelope said her hands tightening into fists, she had known that Aaron wouldn't be able to just forget about it and had been anticipating him saying something, thankfully it wasn't too much farther too Rossi's.

"I know what you're going to say…" Aaron highly doubted that "and please don't." Penelope sighed "I'd really just like to forget the whole thing happened. I really appreciate you helping me out and I know how uncomfortable it must have been for you, so I'm sorry about that but there's no need to keep going over it."

"I think you misunderstood…" Aaron began but Penelope didn't let him finish.

"Hey, isn't that it?" she asked as Aaron turned onto the road that Dave's cabin was on.

"Well," Penelope said "thanks for driving; I think I'll just hop out here if that's okay with you, I really need to go to the washroom."

Before the car had even stopped moving Penelope was opening her door, Aaron pressed harder on the break and came to a complete stop. He watched in annoyance as Penelope made her escape.

He shook his head; she was kidding herself if she thought she was getting away that easy. He wasn't going to hold back again, at some point today, Aaron was going to talk this through with her and hopefully he'd be able to get his point across.

…

**A/N: **

**My sister, whose account on this site is Irishlove4Snape, is in France at the moment and she's basically given up on fanfiction. Instead of abandoning her stories she has gifted them to me… Anyway I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything with them but basically I now have use over her account. So I've decided to upload a few stories I had to get rid of a few months back, including one of my Aaron/Penelope stories which I've already started uploading. So check it out, thanks. **


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